Cosmopolitan novelists claim expository authority through op-ed pieces that mirror their fiction

Evidence

Producing articles with titles such as “Pakistan Must Not Be Abandoned” (Guardian, October 15, 2001); “Pakistan’s Silent Majority Is Not to Be Feared” (New York Times, March 27, 2007); and “Why Do They Hate Us?” (Washington Post, July 22, 2007), Hamid is a much sought contributor to contemporary debates, whose immersion in the cultures of both East and West—he was part educated and employed for many years in the United States and Britain—give him a perceived authority. Kamila Shamsie frequently exercises a similar prerogative, and there is much to be gained from a greater attention to those who may articulate views beyond the myopia of Western strategic interests, no matter how circumscribed they are by class privilege. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 452

Categorization

• XREF: The op-ed-as-authority claim parallels Hamid and Naqvi both writing journalism/essays to secure interpretive authority.
• SEED: Possible essay angle: how The Reluctant Fundamentalist’s frame dialogue performs the ‘mediator’ role the novel simultaneously distrusts.